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Edward Cockerill's father was posted to India during World War 2. When he returned to Leicestershire he brought these wooden cigar and jewellery boxes. "My father went to war in about 1940 when I was 6 months old. In 1946 I was walking home from school for my dinner and I saw this soldier in front of me with a suitcase in one hand and a kitbag on his shoulder. I hurried to catch him up and got to the side of him. He said, 'Hello!' I said, 'Hello!' We walked a bit further and I said, 'My daddy's coming home from the war in a bit'. He said, 'Oh? What's your name?' I told him. He put down his kitbag and suitcase, picked me up and said, 'I'm your dad!' I shot off home and told my mother - of course she burst into tears! Not long after my dad came back, the front room was packed with stuff - his suitcase was open and there was stuff everywhere - 50 tins of cigarettes, these wooden boxes, all sorts. One of the jewellery boxes has an ornate carving of the Taj Mahal on the lid - the other has a dragon. The standing Indian elephant is a cigar case. The top comes off and it opens like a book with 10 vertical holes on each side for the cigars and two diamond shaped vents on each.